A 24-year-old former geriatric nurse has been sentenced to one year in prison for intentional bodily harm for attacking a senior with dementia. Before the Regensburg Regional Court, the Criminal Court ordered the man to be placed in a psychiatric facility. The sentence is to be suspended. The judges did not see intent to kill, as the 24-year-old had originally been accused of in the indictment. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
According to the criminal court, the man should be housed in a socio-therapeutic facility. If he does not prove himself, he will have to go to a closed psychiatric facility, a court spokesman said. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the man should have been in prison for two years and ten months. In his plea, the prosecutor accused the nurse of dangerous bodily harm and mistreatment of those under protection.
In his closing speech, the defense attorney assumed that it was a case of simple bodily harm and considered a suspended sentence of between six and twelve months to be appropriate. Both sides demanded placement in a psychiatric ward.
According to the investigation, the 24-year-old pressed a pillow on the face of a 68-year-old resident in Cham in February. When a colleague of the nurse came into the room, the man let go of the victim. The senior suffered no permanent damage. The prosecutor, like the judges later, assumed that the 24-year-old had resigned from his crime – at the moment he was spoken to by his colleague. According to the judges, the act was a result of pent-up aggression and not an insensitive attitude, which is why they did not see the allegation of ill-treatment of wards as founded. The process had largely taken place behind closed doors.
As a result, 15 deaths in the nursing home were checked and three bodies were exhumed. According to the investigative authorities, a suspicion against the 24-year-old had not been substantiated.